Guild Wars 2 lies in a strange place between being something of a man of mystery and having been on show for so long that our eyes have crawled across most every element of it. A lot of the promises being made are conceptual or may rely on idealised circumstances, but nonethless people are being won after dramatically: most recently, it won game of the show at the Eurogamer Expo. So when do we all get to try it? Well, a closed beta has been promised before the end of the year, with an open beta to follow and then a release date dependent on the success of that.

For now, perhaps the best you’re going to get is TotalBiscuit’s substantial videoing (a good 40 minutes, all told) of his high-level play sessions at the Expo – it shows off some the more ambitious mechanics as well as plenty of day-to-day beast-slaying. He seems very impressed indeed, for the most part.

Here’s some adventures as a high Level Sylvari Necromancer:

And here’s a spot of PvP manbashing, from the point of view of a Norn thief:

I met Mr Biscuit at the RPS post-Expo drinks, and I can attest to the fact he speaks exactly like that in person too.

“A lot of the promises being made are conceptual or may rely on idealised circumstances…”

Err, that’s not really true any longer, is it? Most of what was promised in blog format has been delivered to the game, although their continued plans (such as the multiple guild system) are yet to show up in-game. So, it’s an overlap of promises yet to be delivered and promises already delivered.

I was going to pre-order this based on my friends recommendation, I now realize that It’s just easier to lose that moron friend. Who keeps playing these dress up my virtual barbie games anyway? don’t answer, that was rhetorical. I have nothing against peoples sexual preference, I just wish people were more honest about what they prefer to swallow.

Oh well. Can you post some text about this soon? I’d be interested to read more about it – I’m a bit in the dark with guild wars 2. I can’t watch videos where I am. I know – I’ll find related articles by tag and read those. Finding out that it won best of show at the weekend has piqued my curiosity.

I’m surprised that it took him so long (and he sounded genuinely surprised) to figure out that he could cast whilst on the move. Is this really something that most MMOs do not offer? I hardly play any, but this one looks staggeringly good

You haven’t even seen half of the movement that is possible in GW2.
He was only concentrating on narrating, instead of figuring out how to play the class to its fullest, but it’s no surprise this game has its challenge.
TLTR: He was bad at playing, but that was expected given the circumstances.

The game looks depressing, atleast for me, i mean even guild wars 1 had more life in it, the npc-s and mobs are lifeless here, environements also, the map isnt corelated with the compass , you walk on green area on compass, its dark and gloomy in the “real world”

these years of waiting for guild wars 2 gave high hopes, not only for myself but i think for other people as well, i hope they work on it , because these videos are depressing, and no, it’s not cause of that cynical brit rambling about, it’s the game..

Sorry, what? Fixed NPCs giving out walls of text and boring fetch quests are more lifelike than this? Empty battlefields with only you, a few useless friendlies and the same mobs at the same place every time you jumped in the instanced world are more lifelike than this?

Did we play the same GW or watch the same GW2 clip? As much as I liked GW1, there’s just no comparison. Remove your rose-tinted glasses, they’re making you look stupid.

And when has GW1’s map matched the world more than approximately? I can still quite easily recall cursing the map in Cantha, and as far as I can tell it’s much better this time around. Your claims are entirely unfounded.